| Abstract: |
The issue of regionalization of the world from macro level (macro-regions) to the micro level (local regions) belongs to the geography of relatively traditional and permanent circuits in terms of current projects and research. Also, because of this, there are currently already a number of concepts of regionalization, which are conceptually more or less connected to their bearers, i.e. their thinking and origin. These concepts have become an integral part of cultural expression and as such should be seen always in the context of the nation, of which the author or authors of these concepts originated, i.e. the historical and cultural contexts. In terms of regionalization of Europe it is quite usual to shape regions on the principle of steady state borders and any differences within states are to be overlooked. The states in their concepts then usually behave as indivisible entities. In this context, there are a number of issues, such as to what extent do these concepts correspond to the ideas of individuals from different European countries in their mental maps? Does the stability of the region manifest itself somehow in mental maps, and if so, how? Is it possible to trace the origin of the authors of these mental maps, etc.? The aim of this paper is to present a relatively unconstrained (free) regionalization of Europe by using the example of setting the boundaries of the region “Central Europe”. The origin of the term “Central Europe” is connected with the so-called Vienna Congress, which took place in 1814–1815. For our study, this region was chosen as an example because it is a relatively less stable region within Europe and even the experts are not of the same opinion on the definition of the unity (see e. g. Battaglia, 1960, Schenk 1995, Szucs 2001, Wandycz 2004). It is particularly associated with the so-called principle of European duality (Nováček 2012), because the boundaries of “two Europes” often went right through this region during the historical development. A questionnaire survey was the chosen method of this case study, related to the acquisition of mental maps of respondents. In the survey, the respondents marked the borders of Central Europe onto the European map containing only the border states. The boundaries of “Central Europe” which they marked may or may have not respected the boundaries of existing European states. The participants were students of the last year of secondary schools, respectively of first year university students from selected areas. The samples come from Austria, Czechia, from the former East and West Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland. Special thanks to colleagues from their respective departments for their help, without whom this research could not have been carried out. Based on the analysis carried out in ArcGIS for Desktop 10.2 using the tools of extension Spatial Statistics, the influence of the respondent’s origin on the resulting mental map has been proven (Saarinen 1988). It was also shown to affect the stability of the region defining the resulting aggregated mental map. The influence of regional stability has also been shown to define the resulting aggregated mental map. The correlation of concept origins with mental maps has only been partially proven, which can be ascribed to the fact that the amount of the compared concepts was not large. |
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